Ted Barton radically changed the figure skating landscape in British Columbia when he was instrumental in establishing the Burnaby Skate Canada Centre of Excellence, considered one of the finest figure skating training centres in the world.

Barton was most notably, one of the architects of the sport’s new scoring system. After a judging scandal at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in which Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier were the victims of questionable scoring, Barton was chosen by the International Skating Union to figure out why it happened and how to fix it. That resulted in important changes to the scoring system the likes that hadn’t been in nearly a century.

A former national junior skating champion and coach (12 of his athletes became national team members), Barton continued to improve the sport through his outstanding technical skills. A whiz at video production he developed a instant replay system for judging panels, which was adopted by the International Skating Union as well as CBC and CTV.

His latest “invention” was live streaming of skating events throughout the country. He became the executive director of the BC-Yukon Skate Canada Section. 

Barton attracted elite coach Joanne McLeod, a Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame honoured member (2005) to the centre based at Burnaby 8-Rinks, now called Scotia Barn. Later he brought in well-regarded Bruno Marcotte and Victor Kraatz to run the pairs and ice dance programs.

Barton was inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame in 2008.

A true ambassador for the sport and an inspiration to all, Agatha Van Der Starre held four International masters speed skating world records for women 75 and older, including the 500-, 1,000- and 1,500-metre distances.

Van Der Starre took over as president of the tiny Burnaby Speed Skating Club in 1981 holding the position for 11 years. She helped grow the club from just five members, putting in countless hours at the community and provincial levels, to a thriving club with champion skaters young and old. She was part of the club for more than 30 years.

One of Van Der Starre legacies was her daughter Ariana who skated with the club before becoming its coach and also on the provincial and national level. Ariana is also an honoured member of the Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame (2025).

Van Der Starre’s efforts with the club earned her the Investors Group Community Sport Achievement Award for outstanding involvement in community sport in 1993.

The native of Schipluiden, Netherlands passed away in March 2021 at the age of 90.

Kevin Reynolds’ amazing athleticism helped to influence changes to figure skating judging. Based out of the elite skating program at Burnaby 8-Rinks and Reynolds represented Canada at six world championships, finishing has high was fifth, as well as the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

Reynolds trained under the tutelage of another Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame inductee Joanne McLeod (2005). He was the first skater to land two quadruple jumps in a single program and five quads in one competition. But in his early days of competing he wasn’t getting rewarded by the judges for executing difficult and eye-popping elements. That didn’t deter him, though.

Instead it motivated him to continue to challenge the system by performing his array of difficult elements in the hope change would come, and it did. Since then the judging criteria has completely flipped, says Reynolds, and he is “very proud” of being part of that change.

Late in his career, Reynolds persevered on the ice despite a hip injury and a torn labrum. That’s usually a career-ending injury in figure skating, but Reynolds rebounded with rehabilitation to skate for another four years.